This invention relates to a handling arrangement for goods units, which comprises a goods units stock area and a goods units loading area arranged directly adjacent each other and a robot system. The robot system comprises a picking robot movable in the stock area for picking goods units and forming rows of transfer piles, and a moving system for moving the rows of transfer piles. The working area of the picking robot extends to the stock area.
The invention also relates to a method of handling goods units in a stock area and a loading area, using a picking robot which is movable in the stock area and picks the goods units and forms rows of transfer piles and a moving system which moves the transfer pile rows from the stock area to the loading area.
Shipping quantities of good units based on customer orders are collected in dispatch or shipping departments of production plants of breweries, slaughterhouses, dairies, bakeries and other enterprises. In manual picking, trucks and moving carriages are used to assist in the picking, but nevertheless, the work is slow because a single customer order may require several different products, which are in different locations of the stock area, so that transferring takes the largest part of the time spent. In automated picking, each product can have its own product line, from where the products are taken according to the customer order. The picking can only happen at the ends of the product lines or rows and the transport arrangement takes a large amount of space. This arrangement is functionally inflexible and requires a lot of floor area. Additionally, a large amount of equipment is needed, requiring considerable service and repair work.
If the dispatch department work is to be automated, one can buy automatic arrangements, which automatically perform the picking and the transfers inside the stock area. Because the number and size of customer orders can be large depending of the time of day and night, a large transport system is needed to transport the goods and arrange the goods at the loading area. This kind of arrangement requires a lot of floor area, preventing traffic in the area, and prolongs the working time for goods loading.
Publication FI 922028 discloses placing goods units in piles and picking goods units from piles. FI 922028 is concerned specifically with an arrangement for stocking and loading of boxes and box piles. The arrangement does not permit forming specified box piles by picking groups or sets of boxes from separate piles.
Publication FI 954688 discloses a robot system including a robot that is movable over the working area, wherein several goods units are arranged in a pile or stack. The robot comprises a vertically movable gripping apparatus, which can pick at least one goods unit from a pile or unload to a pile. In this arrangement boxes formed in piles are transported by the gripping apparatus to a transport line, which moves the piles forward finally to be loaded onto distribution cars.
These known arrangements concentrate mostly on picking the boxes themselves, and cannot control comprehensive handling of goods units. Problems of combined loading and distributing occurring after the picking are not solved by these known arrangements, whereas the invention offers a new solution to such problems.
The aim of the invention is achieve a more advanced arrangement than known systems, wherein hindrances and problems of the known art are minimized, and with the help of which the handling of goods units becomes effective. Additionally a special aim is to achieve an arrangement for goods dispatch departments, with the aid of which the manual work and the time needed for loading transport means are minimized.
According to one embodiment of the invention a handling arrangement for goods units has a stock area for goods units and a loading area for goods units. The handling arrangement includes a robot system, which comprises a movable picking robot located in the stock area for picking goods units. The picking robot may be, for example, according to Publication FI 954688. Advantageously, the arrangement further comprises a moving arrangement for moving transport pile rows formed by the picking robot. Control information, customer based goods units information (i.e. information that specifies the number of units of each item or product required by the customer) and customer based unloading information concerning a load (i.e. information specifying the order in which the different units are to be unloaded from the transport vehicle) can be supplied to control apparatus for the robot system. The picking robot is arranged to pick goods units and form customer based transport piles according to the customer based information and place the transport piles in transport pile rows by a combination function of the transport pile row transport apparatus. The stock area and the loading area are in direct or immediately proximity to each other and the working area of the picking robot reaches to the stock area; the working area of the goods pile row moving apparatus reaches both to the stock area and to the loading area. With the help of the moving apparatus, each formed transport pile row can be moved as a whole from the stock area to the loading area.
The transfer pile row moving system comprises a power or force transmitting arrangement to achieve the transfer movement of the transfer pile rows, by which power or force is transferable to, or can be applied to, all of the transfer piles of a transfer pile row. Advantageously the transfer movement is a pushing movement and the moving apparatus comprises a pusher or the like, which moves with a horizontal pushing movement from the stock area to the loading area and with a returning movement from the loading area to the stock area. The working area of the goods units picking robot extends to a transport pile row forming or assembly area, to which also extends the working area of the transport system for transport pile rows, if the working areas of the picking robot and transfer pile row transport equipment are imbricated or overlapping and the forming area is located at the stock area side. The stock area and the loading area are advantageously separated by a wall or the like.
According to an optional feature of the method of the invention for the handling of goods units in the stock area and for the loading of goods unit to a transport vehicle in the loading area, goods units arriving at the stock area with transport apparatus can be stored in the stock area with the help of the robot system in product piles located beside each other and including the same articles. The robot system picks goods units from the product piles to form transport piles including different goods units. From the transport piles one forms in a predetermined sequence several transport pile rows, which are moved by the transport means in the order in which they are formed to the load. According to this feature the robot system comprises a movable robot in the stock area for picking goods units, a transfer pile row transport apparatus and a control apparatus which controls the function of the robot system. Customized goods unit information and customized discharge information of the load in dropping or distribution order are fed to the robot system""s control apparatus as control data. In this manner, one can discharge from the load the exact amount of each customer""s ordered goods in the right order. By forming the transport pile rows in accordance with the customer based goods unit information and customer based unloading information, the goods units can be loaded onto the transport vehicle in a last off, first on sequence, so that the goods units can easily be unloaded in the order required by the customer without goods units that should be unloaded earlier being blocked by goods units that are to be unloaded later. The picking robot picks and forms customized transfer piles according to this information and deposits them in transfer pile rows in operational connection with the transfer pile row moving apparatus. The transfer pile row moving apparatus also forms transfer assemblies from sequential transfer pile rows, which are arranged according to the load discharge information, i.e. information on how to discharge the load for each customer.
Transport assemblies may be formed such that the transport pile row transfer equipment moves the transport pile row already formed by the picking robot forward towards the loading area at least so far as to leave enough space to accommodate the next formed transport pile row.
Several advantages are achieved with the invention. The arrangement according to the invention is able to solve the picking problem of many foodstuff dispatch departments without any manual operating stages. A stream of goods coming from production arrives automatically at the loading dock directly in the correct loading form and loading order. The loading phase is considerably more rapid and the possibility of error decreases, because it is not necessary to provide information separately to a car loader as to how he should carry out the loading of the car (truck or railroad car).
The invention has also clear advantages compared to existing automatic systems, where the articles are loaded on a conveyor in the picking area, e.g. in a route specific order. In this case, the conveyor arrangement has to extend as far as the loading area, in order to ensure the correct loading onto the means of transport. This arrangement requires among other things a lot of floor space, because the amount of apparatus is large and hinders or even prevents the movement of people and machines in the loading area.